‘A really sad day’: Penn State Fayette faculty react to closure
After Penn State listed the Fayette campus for potential closure in February, and enumerated the reasons in a report this month, those who call the campus home saw the end result coming.
But faculty were still devastated Friday over the Penn State board of trustees’ vote Thursday night to close the campus and six others.
After the 24-8 vote, the Eberly Campus will stop operations after the spring 2027 semester, and stop accepting new students after fall 2025.
Historically, the president’s recommendations get approval from the board, making Thursday’s outcome easy to foresee, said Julio Palma, an assistant professor of chemistry at Fayette. The predictability of it didn’t make it easier for him.
“I truly think this is a really sad day in the history of the university, because they are abandoning places where a Penn State campus is so beneficial to the community,” he said.
Jo Ann Jankoski, an associate professor of human development and family studies, said the vote symbolizes Penn State’s abandonment of its original land grant mission. Compared to students at the main campus, students in Fayette are more likely to put their degree to use within the surrounding area.
“It sends a terrible message to rural communities that their futures are potentially expendable,” she said.
The board also voted to shut down campuses in New Kensington, DuBois, Mont Alto, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre, and York. Five others that had been initially considered for closure were spared in the final decision.
Thursday’s decision followed the recommendations of a work group report given to the board last month and released to the public in May after leaks.
Palma said he would have given a failing grade to the report, which he called “a justification of the outcome they wanted.”
Jankoski criticized the report for relying on disinformation and cherry-picked data.
Both singled out one of the criteria — the proximity to other nearby universities. There were four colleges within 30 miles, including Waynesburg University in Greene County and PennWest California in Washington County. That pales in comparison to the density of campuses near Greater Allegheny, Jankoski said.
The Fayette campus has meant higher educational opportunities for students who would otherwise have insurmountable barriers to it, Jankoski said.
“Removing and closing this campus means cutting off access to life-changing educational and professional pathways,” she said.
Palma said the report should have considered factors such as the high placement rate for Fayette’s nursing program.
Palma is out of the country, but has been communicating with people since the announcement. He described the overall mood as “in mourning.”
As a tenured professor, Palma said, he’d likely be offered a transfer to one of Penn State’s remaining campuses. However, he said he found it “very disappointing” to be at a university he feels is not committed to its educational or academic mission.
“It’s very disappointing, and also it’s very disrespectful to the staff, the students, the community and faculty that put their days, their work, their time into making Penn State – Fayette such a wonderful campus,” he said.
Everyone from community members to faculty were “devastated” Friday, Jankoski said, though the campus’ closure might not be the end of higher education there.
She will be sitting on a committee with community partners in Fayette County to discuss forming a new higher-learning institution at the site, Jankoski said. It’s too early to say whether it will be freestanding or tied to another college, she said, but “this campus will rise again.”
“We need to give time for people to process whatever emotions they may have, but we will rise again,” she said. “This campus will rise again. This community will rise again. We don’t know what it looks like yet, but too many of us have worked to build this community and this partnership between the university and the communities, we’re not going to give up that easy.”